Darwin Tse always wanted to be a chef. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that he decided to pivot from his career in marketing and healthcare to enter the culinary world.
About three years ago, he was on a family trip to Napa when he and his dad agreed that it would be nice to own a restaurant.
The decision took on a greater resonance as he and his wife, Lisa, learned they would become parents. “How do we want this child to see her parents?” he recalls asking himself.
He grew inspired thinking about the way he grew up. As a kid, he saw his parents, who immigrated from the Philippines in the 1970s, start their own business, a dental practice, in the U.S.
“I saw them chase something they really wanted. They worked really hard and at the end it paid off,” he says. “I wanted to do the same.”
He eventually found a location in South San Francisco, seeing an opportunity to expand on the city’s lunchtime, catering and happy hour spaces, particularly for the biotech workers in the area as well as local residents. It took about a year to prepare the space for what would become Wildflour. Tse worked with San Francisco-based design firm Nonaps and East Bay-based artist Zoe Caron, who painted a 15-foot mural in the restaurant, on the space’s aesthetics. He also recruited his cousin, Penelope Lao, former head pastry chef at Liholiho Yacht Club, to be Wildflour’s head pastry chef.
The menu may have some seasonal fluctuations — the danish ($5) started out filled with strawberry preserves and cream cheese, and currently comes with a blood orange filling — but will stick to favorites too, like a selection of hearty sandwiches on housemade bread ($17) plus appetizers like the popular milk bread pretzels ($8), topped with everything bagel seasoning and served with grain mustard. There are also five different charcuterie boards, from the Basic ($19) with salami, burrata, olives and cherry tomatoes; to the French ($22), featuring chicken liver paté and wine-soaked blackberries. To drink, beer from local breweries like Drake’s, Dust Bowl, Henhouse and Fort Point ($9) are on tap, plus cider, wine and non-alcoholic options.
“Overall, I’m definitely working more hours than I have in any previous job,” he says. “But I’m finding joy in that.”
Details: Open 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 200 Airport Blvd, South San Francisco; https://wildflour-ssf.com/.